THE SEXUAL IN THE ETHNICAL: AN ADDITION TO SERBIAN IMAGOLOGY

Abstract

The article deals with explanatorily relevance of the concept of stereotype in one of its original meanings – as a "mental image". This meaning of stereotype is starting point for further differentiations between linguistic and behavioral stereotypes (in sense of non-verbal and expected reactions); universal and particular stereotypes; selfrepresentative and introspective stereotypes; permanent and contemporary stereotypes; finally and most importantly for our purposes, difference between silent and audible stereotypes. The first part of this article discusses functions and makes differentiation of stereotypes. In the second part, the relations of silent and audible stereotypes are tested against introduction of "innovative vocabularies" in popular inheritance. In other words, the explanatory power of this differentiation is investigated through an analysis of unconventional motives in Serbian epic poems. The goal of the argument is to clarify a procedure of self-creation of masculinity as a relevant feature of "national character" through "tactic games" of silent and audible stereotypes. Examination of these "poetic strategies" has a two-fold function: to illustrate the process of construction of particular features of "ethno-type", on the one hand, and to check hypothesis and models which are considered as frameworks of stereotype analysis, on the other.